Blog Post

There are just a few weeks remaining for you to get prepared for the roll out of GST, and out of the many questions you will be asking yourself, ‘what changes should I look for in my system, from my Tax Consultant, or in business processes, in order to better prepare for GST?’, is likely to be at the top of the list.

This article attempts to highlight key expectations and new pain points that are going to emerge in your business due to the upcoming law. These findings surfaced once we refocused our efforts after the constitutional amendment leading up to the GST law. All our work went into identifying new business behaviour changes in order to deliver the simplest-to-use GST software in the market.

As you already know, GST is based on the concept of invoice matching and it will fundamentally change the behaviour of your business in the following ways:

1. We believe that you will move to a ‘Payment on Invoice Upload’ behaviour

In the pre-GST era; you were able to complete a transaction after receiving an Invoice and making the due payment to your Supplier. You could also take for granted the ability to avail tax credit on the invoice, even before filing your tax returns.

Now with the GST rules, tax credit is assured only after invoice matching is done. The question to ask yourself- how will you bring your confidence that Tax credit is not rejected or it is reflecting incorrect value.

So, this is how we see the process going. First, an invoice will be uploaded to the GST system by your supplier using GST Ready Software. You will then proceed to check whether all the data in the invoice is correct and matching your records (once the invoice is made available to you). You are likely to make the payment to your supplier only once this has been verified. This way of working may start for a few suppliers to begin with but would become a normal process for all of your suppliers.

Your customers would also expect you to upload the relevant sales invoices before paying you. Therefore, we believe that ‘Payment on Invoice Upload’ will become a common phenomenon.

2. You will interact on a much more regular basis with the Government Tax System

In the pre-GST era, interaction with the government tax system was a once-in-a-month or once in a quarter phenomenon for most businesses.

However, the ‘Payment on Invoice Upload’ behaviour in GST will make this interaction more frequent than ever before.

It begins with an invoice being uploaded either by you, your Goods and Services Tax Practitioner (GSTP), or both of you. And in the case where both of you upload, data needs to be efficiently managed rather than being the source of confusion.

You will also start accepting invoices for your purchases and would want a real time status of invoices before paying your supplier. Given all of this, you should prepare to engage more frequently with the Government Tax System.

3. You will notice a high level of anxiety during the cut-off dates

In the pre-GST era, there was only one cut-off date for the return filing of a Tax type. You would have provided information to your GSTP who prepares and uploads the returns, pay the due taxes, and provide you with the acknowledgements.

Now, the process of upload, matching, missed uploads and tax payment have different cut-off dates, namely the 10th, 15th, 17th and 20th. And on each of these dates, anxiety levels are likely to rise depending on whether your GST returns are successfully processed or not.

This is because each of us will have hundreds, thousands or even Lakhs of Invoices in a month and the GST system put together will have several billions of invoices to process in a given month. Given that this system is expected to both store and provide information, it will require time to process such a high volume of data and provide results of success or failure based on the GST rules. To design such a solution requires a two-step process; the first step is to receive data for processing from the taxpayer and the second step is to provide results for the received data (also known as asynchronous behaviour).

An analogy to simplify this would be depositing a cheque in a bank account and getting a message that the amount is credited but is subject to clearing. Whether the clearance is successful or not is known to you at a later point in time.

This asynchronous behaviour means that just by uploading information to the GST system does not complete your compliance activity. Anxiety levels will peak towards the 4 cut-off dates as the processing time could take longer. You will expect to be informed about any failures or successes, and you should be informed even if you have closed your GST Software.

4. You will need a GST Software that seamlessly operates out of multiple locations

Almost all businesses operate from multiple locations. It starts with a minimum of two locations; your businesses location and your GSTP’s location. If your business is operating from multiple locations, the operational complexity further increases.You would be expected to upload a few of the Invoices and invoice matching from each of your locations. Your GSTP will take information from you for and the data from GSTN for already uploaded invoices. Based on this collected information, your GSTP will submit the returns.

It is very likely that all of this is simultaneously operated. Simultaneous operations from multiple locations would need an extremely high degree of integrity & accuracy in Compliance data. Therefore, your ability to seamlessly operate with multiple disparate systems is extremely crucial to ensuring your books and compliance returns match.

5. You will need a GST Software that aids confidence in signing returns

The last step of return filing requires you to download the summary (which doesn’t contain individual transactions) and sign a return. Before you sign, it will be crucial to ensure that nothing is pending and that there is no difference between what you have submitted and what GSTN has sent to you – this will be a challenge.

It is important to be aware that you, your suppliers and your customers could all update relevant sections of information that go in your return. Since the GSTN system is asynchronous, the summation might be in processing, therefore some information won’t be available in summary immediately.

You need to reconcile all the above information together in a GST Software in order to build confidence in signing returns.

6. You need Compliance Convenience to remain focused on running the business

These pain points are likely to cause a lot of confusion in your business. In fact, if not managed well, it can keep you busy for a significant period of time and potentially even distract you from running your business.

You would desire to have “One Simple Transparent Step” to accomplish all the pending activities related to the GST system. And bringing this Compliance Convenience would be Tally’s objective, so that your focus remains in running the Business and it being GST Compliant.

Please share your thoughts on these SIX changes in business behaviour that GST will bring.

Our next article will cover the role of the Goods and Services Tax Practitioner (GSTP), who will be more critical than ever before to your business. This will be followed by another article on how our SIXTH Release of Tally ERP 9 will make these SIX behavioural changes simpler for you.

To understand the GST laws and its impact on your business and to get our product updates; please subscribe to our blog.

Update: Tally.ERP 9 Release 6 (GST-Ready) is available now. Please download it and share your feedback by replying to this post.

D/Sir,We want that, first you release demo of GST in Tally in market or inU-TUBE well ahead of GST rollout from govt.so that we can coup up with the day to days business transaction without faceing much troubles. Second thing what will be your position on updating existing Tally? Will you impose extra charge on updating Tally ERP9?

The whole translation and returns are internet based. can the government ensure a good and reliable internet connection. In pondicherry where i am situated power goes almost every half an hour. hence I an not use my BSNL broad band connection every time.

Sir, Whether Tally has released the new version to support GST compliance?we understanding entire accounting process will get change… how much support we can get it from Tally?please send us the contact number, as we have few queries on above mentioned subject.

Mr. Rakesh,Please let me know the Position of Consignment sales in GST.In Consignment sales Delivery takes place before and sale takes place later.Let me explain the exact situation.1. Stocks are received through Delivery Challan.2. At the time of sale of stock, consignor was informed of sale3. Then he raises sales bill to the agent4. Agent prepares sale bill on delivery to the customer.What is the position of these scenarios in GST

Dear Mr.Rakesh,I guess it’s time for tally to introduce graphical User Interface, so that even semi skilled staff or fresher can easily handle it..just like a mobile app or internet booking engine.Tally should be made simple in terms of creating masters, Items added should be able easily able be selected from drop menus…

HELP SIRwe have customised tally9ERp such as tally main menu, prod master and many funcnaloties thru activating TDL. now we have shifted to Realase 5.5.7 but that TDL is not working in new release and source code of TDL is with programed and he is not in touch. please suggest in this regards.

dear siris that Tally new release 5.5.7 is ready with Gst compliance and can we start creating a new company and product master with taxation or we have to wait till release 6. please help us in thus regard. we are very confused.

Thank God for Team Tally. We have last month upgraded to Tally 5.5 version and now appears that Tally 6.0 will be needed.Could you please clarify one point which is Unclear to me (Dealer based) –Once the supplier has uploaded a invoice, the dealer will have to accept and then make his sales – The Act states that Input Credit will be available to Dealer once the Supplier has paid the relevant taxes.Does this mean that a Dealer cannot claim Input Tax till the 20th of next month (the due date for the Supplier to remit taxes for previous month) for the items under that particular Invoice ?

Dear Mr Deb,Once supplier uploaded a invoice and dealer accepts it. Dealer will be allowed with provisional input tax credit, which will be regularized after payment of tax by supplier. In event of non payment by supplier, provisional input tax credit will be reversed and will be added as liability to the dealer. Please go through our blog on this “GST Input Tax Credit Explained” http://blogs.tallysolutions.com/gst-input-tax-credit-explained-video/ to understand input tax credit in GST

I think Govt. and Software developers are just a ORDER procedure to launch GST in India, but there are too huge problems face to upload return through TALLY and other software, because all IT segments are not capable to sort out all client problems in few days (in few hours, reason they want also need time to understand the problem), then i think First the last date of returns should be roll back for monthly basis, because as our regular practice from Govt. Department provide all data on Quarterly basis, then how it is possible to return monthly basis, Second Businessmen is not a accountant and accountant not a Businessmen same as C.A. have not capable time to watch multiple clients problems and sort out that problems, and last Also Govt. departments are also not COMPLETE UPDATED about GST, then how can we think that if any face problems in GST they will help us because they are also helpless.

At last my personal opinion Govt. and IT Departments should more work on GST, then launch GST, till date (18.05.201)O more and more confusions about GST.

Otherwise this GST work like as in a school there is no any SKILLED teacher and want result 100% TOP List.

Dear Tally Team,Do you mean that each Invoice Copy of Sale/Purchase has to be uploaded and will be matched or the Sales/Purchase Register with Complete Invoice Details Like Number,Date,Assessable Value + GST Charged will be matched.

The copy of the invoice need not be uploaded but other details like registeration number of recipient, date , invoice number , value ,taxable value, tax and other details prescribed will have to be accurately mentioned by the supplier!

Hello, thanks for updating us but we are getting anxious on the format of billing, HSN code information on invoice and whether the Tally format can be directly uploaded on GSTN. Look to your response and hope to have one that will boost our confidence and trust with Tally

Dear Mr. Varma,Thank you for your confidence in Tally. Please be rest assure that Tally will provide you with solution for GST invoicing before implementation of GST. Till then please make sure you are on latest release of Tally.ERP 9

No doubt compliance will. Became more complex and time consuming.can we upload all business transaction on daily basis to comply with the Gst return compliance in time.where the sales purchase transactions are huge in volume.Need more information regarding disallowance of input tax .

Dear Mr. Basu,Yes, you can upload your outward supply transactions on daily basis.On our blog site http://blogs.tallysolutions.com/ left hand side we have categorized our published blogs. Under that you will find a dedicated category on “Input Tax Credit” under which you will find various blogs on input tax credit. Please refer to our blog “Scenarios where you cannot Avail Input Tax Credit”

2 SUGGESTION-1) INSTEAD OF FILLING MONTHLY SALES RETURN – ONE CAN SUBMIT SALES DETAILS ON DAILY BASISTHIS WAY GSTN SYSTEM WILL ALSO NOT GET HANGED – AS SOME EXPERTS EXPECT – DUE TO SHEER VOLUME ( IF WE IGNORE FIRST 3 DAYS, THEN ONLY 7 DAYS REMAIN FOR ALL BUSINESSES)2) E-WAY BILL CAN BE POPULATED FOR FILLING SALES E-RETURN – IF ONE EFFECTS ALL SALES TO BE MADE BY E-WAY BILL ONLY (THIS CAN BE FULL PROOF FOR GOVT)

First tally needs to start HSN classification to put is stock masters, a report by description and by HSn can be printed. So when challan invoice etc done it takes care of HSN. Stock by hsn will be over.Tally should ship data in form which can be up loaded as sales, purchase etc. So rest activity will be walking smoothly. error of mismatch can be resolved.

Good information.What is the procedure for GST for the folowing1.Sales Returns2. Sending material for Jobwork and return3.Handling of defectives-for ex returning to supplier for rectification4.Handling short supplied material5.Free replacements during warranty etc

GST is going to become an IT nightmare. Some industry will undergo major working capital crunch and Tally rightly pointed out that GST will attract major attention taking away focus from doing normal business.

Sir thanks for the valuable information on gst. Sir can u pls let me know about the procedure for taking input of the ground stock lying in our godown and thier hsn code at the time of gst implemention

Can you send us probable formats to be filled in for GST. like Invoice, GST monthly returns, accepted list of invoices. unaccepted list of invoices, challans for payments, etc. They may not be perfect at this point of time, but we will get more practical knowledge in dealing with GST.

We appreciate TALLY’s proactive approach in sharing knowledge related to GST implementation. Especially when the entire business community is apprehensive and also confused, your articles on various aspects are giving us strength to face the entirely new taxation regime. Thanks a lot,

Tally Solutions is doing remarkably well in helping the MSME sector the largest group of Tally users. Since Tally Solutions is one of the GST Suvidha Providers, it is my firm belief that Tally Solutions will come out with a unique GST Accounting Software as they are very well conversant with the GSTN Architecture.

Dear Tally Team,Is it possible that all your templates can be merged into one with applicability sequence like Introduction of GST, Purchase, Inventory, Sales, Accounts & Taxations to enable all the tally users to update the same in their respective company and concerned department. surely it will help a lot to all the concerneds.

Dear Mr. Gundecha,Please visit our blog site http://blogs.tallysolutions.com/ left hand side we have categorized our published blogs. These categorization will give you all our blogs at one place with logical grouping

Hats off to the Tally team for giving valuable knowledge regarding SHYWe have many approx.40% of our customers do not have VAT No Ex.farmers is there any problem regarding uploading their invoices in GST